Bettendorf, Ia. – With Republican presidential hopefuls bashing him almost daily on the campaign trail in Iowa, President Barack Obama stopped in the leadoff voting state Tuesday to make a dent in that negative narrative, to push a manufacturing initiative he kicked off last week – and to do a speedy photo op at a popular diner.

At a thriving Iowa manufacturing plant, Obama, a Democrat, said the economy is rebounding and that people shouldn’t lose sight of that, even though reversing a decade of economic challenges won’t happen overnight.

Workers at the high-tech Alcoa Davenport Works applauded Obama’s message about the country’s addition of 2 million new private sector jobs in 15 months, even as some business leaders across the state expressed concern about stalled trade agreements and expenses caused by the federal health care reform law that Obama signed.

Obama chose as the setting for his address a cutting-edge plant in the Quad Cities – which he affectionately referred to as “the Quads” – that produces aluminum for airplanes, military vehicle armor and other industrial uses. Its aluminum was used in the wings on Air Force One, the president noted.

The Alcoa plant, a mile-long facility next to the Mississippi River, employs 2,200 people.

Obama said the bottom fell out of the economy during his last few weeks on the presidential campaign trail, but that he has made decisions that “have pulled our economy back from the brink and put us on a better path.”

A robust manufacturing sector is a big part of that, he said. The audience at Alcoa, which has a unionized work force, cheered when Obama said he wants cars, planes and wind turbines “to bear the proud stamp that says ‘made in America.’ ”

New jobs initiative focuses on technology

In his 19-minute speech, Obama said he was thinking about jobs and the economy before he ran for president – “before I came to Iowa, when I was still a senator in Illinois.”

GOP candidates in Iowa repeatedly rail about federal spending and debt. Obama, however, said the government can live within its means and still invest in education, transportation and communication systems.

Obama’s new initiative, the Advanced Manufacturing Partnership, is a joint effort by industry, universities and the federal government to invest in technology that would create high-level manufacturing jobs.

The government will spend $500 million on projects improving manufacturing for batteries and composites needed for national security, research in robotics, and research in hastening product development. Universities and companies would help invent and produce new technologies and help guide the effort.

Obama pushed back against Republican candidates who keep up a steady drumbeat about a gloomy economy.

“Sometimes it’s tempting to turn cynical and to be doubtful about the future, and to start thinking, ‘Maybe our best days are behind us,’ ” he said.

“But that’s not the America that I know. That’s not the America I see here in the Quads and in communities all across the country today.”

Business leaders decry high health care costs

Iowa business and political leaders in attendance said other actions Obama has taken, specifically his support of the new health reform law, will make job creation more difficult.

Bettendorf Mayor Michael Freemire, a Republican, said the federal health care law meant 18 percent in additional costs last year to his two small businesses, which together employ 19. The law will add 17.5 percent this year, and he expects it to get “exponentially greater.”

Freemire said he could have added another employee at Results Integrated Marketing and Freemire Enterprises if not for the health care law.

Before Obama’s speech, Freemire said: “I’d like to make sure (Obama) understands the law of unintended consequences in reference to the fine balance between the need to grow the economy and grow our labor force and to be able to do that at a profitable level for all businesses.”

“Our company has tried to be very proactive in providing good health care for our employees while keeping costs in line,” she said.

“We have not had the double-digit increases every year like other companies have had.”

Despite the company’s emphasis on wellness – it has a third-party clinic and pharmacy on its campus – the legislation will be expensive, she said. And further components of the legislation will cost more later, she said, though Vermeer has not put numbers to those projections.

Political implications in background of visit

Any presidential visit to Iowa, home of the first caucuses in the presidential election cycle, comes with political overtones. With 50 states to choose from, Obama selected a swing state that will be crucial to his re-election.

The state of the economy is historically the dominant issue in American presidential elections.

“He’s in Iowa today because he’s interested in saving his job,” Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus told the reporters on a telephone conference call Tuesday.

May marked the 27th consecutive month that Iowa Republicans have gained new voters at the expense of the Democratic Party, said Matt Strawn, chairman of the Iowa GOP. Democrats still have the advantage. But what was once a 113,000-voter registration advantage for Democrats has shrunk by nearly two-thirds, he said.

Democratic strategist Jerry Crawford, a Des Moines lawyer, said Obama is doing exactly the right thing in making his fourth visit as president to Iowa.

“He reminded people in Iowa and Illinois why they liked him so much to begin with,” Crawford said.

“Obama-bashing is red meat for Republicans, and so he should come back and make his case,” Crawford said. “I believe the president cares more about doing his job than the bashing anyway.”

Visit connects Obama with friendly audience

Obama also made a surprise stop before the plant visit at Ross’ Restaurant, a popular 24-hour eatery in Bettendorf. Obama had talked with an owner, Cynthia Freidhof, at a town hall meeting in August 2008, and pledged to go there.

The president greeted Freidhof with a hug. She has remained a fan.

“I think he’s a man of his word, always, and he’s doing the very best job that he can,” Freidhof said.

Obama found a generally friendly audience at the plant, too.

Independent voter Joe Hesse, 44, who is a plate manager at Alcoa, said he thought Obama’s speech was on the mark. “Our business is coming back. Our volume’s back,” he said. “For us, we’re definitely on the right track.”

Democrat Retina Rummels, 44, had watched as more than 350 of her fellow Alcoa workers were laid off in two waves, starting in the first quarter of 2009, and has seen the company rebound and rehire those workers.

“I think everything the president has done since he’s been in office has contributed to the way the economy is going,” said Rummels, a plant supervisor.